Renunciation Quotes - Page 2

• It is impossible to overlook the extent to which civilization is built upon a renunciation of instinct.

  Sigmund Freud

  Civilization, Intuition, Natural Instinct

  Sigmund Freud, Peter (AFT) Gay, Christopher Hitchens (2010). “Civilization and Its Discontents”, W W Norton & Company Incorporated

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• The secret of a happy life lies in renunciation. Renunciation is life.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Life, Lying, Secret

  Mahatma Gandhi (2011). “The Way to God: Selected Writings from Mahatma Gandhi”, North Atlantic Books

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• Renunciation - that is the great fact we all, individuals and classes, have to learn. In trying to avoid it we bring misery to ourselves and others.

  Beatrice Webb

  Class, Trying, Facts

  Beatrice Webb, Jeanne MacKenzie (1982). “The Diary of Beatrice Webb: Glitter Around and Darkness Within, 1873-1892”, Belknap Press

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• Live for an ideal and leave no place in the mind for anything else.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Focus, Mind, Aspiration

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “The Powers of The Mind”, p.21, editionNEXT.com

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• A Sannyasin cannot belong to any religion, for his is a life of independent thought, which draws from all religions; his is a life of realisation, not merely of theory or belief, much less of dogma.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Independent, Belief, Dogma

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda”, p.2221, Manonmani Publishers

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• Sri Yukteswar used to poke gentle fun at the commonly inadequate conceptions of renunciation."A beggar cannot renounce wealth," Master would say. "If a man laments: 'My business has failed; my wife has left me; I will renounce all and enter a monastery,' to what worldly sacrifice is he referring? He did not renounce wealth and love; they renounced him!"Saints like Gandhi, on the other hand, have made not only tangible material sacrifices, but also the more difficult renunciation of selfish motive and private goal, merging their inmost being in the stream of humanity as a whole.

  Paramahansa Yogananda

  Fun, Selfish, Sacrifice

  Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda (2008). “Autobiography of a Yogi”, p.425, Diamond Pocket Books (P) Ltd.

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• Renunciation is the very basis upon which ethics stands. There never was an ethical code preached which had not renunciation for its basis.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Ethics, Ethical, Bases

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “Jnana Yoga: The Yoga of Knowledge”, p.7, editionNEXT.com

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• Gorbachev's administration was amazingly politically naïve, inexperienced and irresponsible towards the country. It was not governance but a thoughtless renunciation of power. The admiration of the West in return only strengthened his conviction that his approach was right. But let us be clear that it was Mikhail Gorbachev, and not Boris Yeltsin, as is now widely being claimed, who first gave freedom of speech and movement to the citizens of Russia.

  Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

  Country, Freedom Of Speech, Admiration

  "I Am Not Afraid of Death". Interview With Christian Neef, Matthias Schepp, www.spiegel.de. July 23, 2007.

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• Truth, purity, self-control, firmness, fearlessness, humility, unity, peace, and renunciation - these are the inherent qualities of a civil resister.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Humility, Self, Unity

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• Patriotism in its simplest, clearest, and most indubitable meaning is nothing but an instrument for the attainment of the government's ambitious and mercenary aims, and a renunciation of human dignity, common sense, and conscience by the governed, and a slavish submission to those who hold power. That is what is really preached wherever patriotism is championed. Patriotism is slavery.

  Leo Tolstoy

  War, Government, Common Sense

  Leo Tolstoy (graf) (1951). “The kingdom of God: and peace essays”

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• If you love God, tear out your heart's love of the world.

  Muhammad Ali

  Heart, Tears, World

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• Renunciation is of the mind.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Mind

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• To write is to become disinterested. There is a certain renunciation in art.

  Albert Camus

  Art, Writing, Disinterest

  Albert Camus (1963). “Carnets: 1935-1942”

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• To realize the spirit as spirit is practical religion. Everything else is good so far as it leads to this one grand idea.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Ideas, Chains That Bind, Spirit

  Swami Vivekananda (1955). “Complete Works”

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• Knowledge and devotion, to be true, have to stand the test of renunciation of the fruits of action.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Knowledge, Tests, Fruit

  Mahatma Gandhi, Mohandas Gandhi, Ronald Duncan (2005). “Gandhi: Selected Writings”, p.37, Courier Corporation

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• In Japan itself there have all along been attempts by some to obliterate the article about renunciation of war from the Constitution and for this purpose they have taken every opportunity to make use of pressures from abroad.

  Kenzaburo Oe

  War, Taken, Opportunity

  "Japan, The Ambiguous, and Myself". Kenzaburo Oe's Nobel lecture, www.nobelprize.org. December 7, 1994.

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• Renunciation, and renunciation alone, is the real secret, the Mulamantra, of all Realisation.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Real, Secret, Realisation

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda”, p.2364, Manonmani Publishers

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• A self-respecting nation is ready for anything, including war, except for a renunciation of its option to make war.

  Simone Weil

  War, Self, Ready

  Simone Weil (2015). “Selected Essays, 1934-1943: Historical, Political, and Moral Writings”, p.159, Wipf and Stock Publishers

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• There can be no love so long as there is lust- even a speck of it, as it were, in the heart. None but men of great renunciation, none but mighty giants among men, have a right to that Love Divine. If that highest ideal of love is held out to the masses, it will indirectly tend to stimulate its worldly which dominates the heart of man- for, meditating on love to God by thinking of oneself as His wife or beloved, one would very likely be thinking most of the time of one's own wife- the result is too obvious to point out.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Heart, Love Is, Men

  Swami Vivekananda, Vivekananda Kendra (2009). “Swami Vivekananda's Rousing Call to Hindu Nation”, p.125, Vivekananda Kendra

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• Give up, renounce the world. Now we are like dogs strayed into a kitchen and eating a piece of meat, looking round in fear lest at any moment some one may come and drive them out. Instead of that, be a king and know you own the world. This never comes until you give it up and it ceases to bind. Give up mentally, if you do not physically. Give up from the heart of your hearts

  Swami Vivekananda

  Dog, Kings, Giving Up

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “Personality Development”, p.23, Advaita Ashrama

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• There is no end to renunciation.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Ends

  Swami Vivekananda (2017). “Vedanta: Voice of Freedom”, p.147, Vedanta Society of St. Louis

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• A saint addicted to excessive self-abnegation is a dangerous associate; he may infect you with poverty, and a stiffening of those joints which are needed for advancement-in a word, with more renunciation than you care for-and so you flee the contagion.

  Victor Hugo

  Self, Atheism, Advancement

  Victor Hugo (1980). “Les misérables”, Viking Pr

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• In all our Yogas this renunciation is necessary. This is the stepping-stone and the real centre and the real heart of all spiritual culture - renunciation. This is religion - renunciation.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Spiritual, Real, Yoga

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “Bhakti Yoga: The Yoga of Love and Devotion”, p.51, Advaita Ashrama (A publication branch of Ramakrishna Math, Belur Math)

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• When? At this time, while you have all the opportunities, if you do not do your best to achieve the pure, stainless path to enlightenment when will you do it? If you don't meditate, don't practise the graduated path to enlightenment, especially bodhicitta, in this life, then when? When will you practise? When will you have this realization? If, in this life, you don't achieve renunciation, bodhicitta and sunyata, as well as the two stages of tantra, when will you? When will you have these attainments? When will you become enlightened? When will you perform perfect work for sentient beings?

  Thubten Zopa Rinpoche

  Buddhist, Opportunity, Two

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• Renunciation is in our blood.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Blood

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